Last Breath
by Annamia
Summary: Another protest, this one against child abuse. Please read! Rated M for obvious reasons including character death.


**My name is Sarah  
I am but three,  
My eyes are swollen  
I cannot see,  
I must be stupid  
I must be bad,  
What else could have made  
My daddy so mad?  
I wish I were better  
I wish I weren't ugly,  
Then maybe my mommy  
Would still want to hug me.  
I can't speak at all  
I can't do a wrong  
Or else I'm locked up  
All the day long  
When I awake I'm all alone  
The house is dark  
My folks aren't home.  
When my mommy does come  
I'll try and be nice,  
So maybe I'll get just  
One whipping tonight  
Don't make a sound!  
I just heard a car  
My daddy is back  
From Charlie's Bar.  
I hear him curse  
My name he calls  
I press myself  
Against the wall.  
I try and hide  
From his evil eyes  
I'm so afraid now  
I'm starting to cry.  
He finds me weeping  
He shouts ugly words,  
He says its my fault  
That he suffers at work.  
He slaps me and hits me  
And yells at me more,  
I finally get free  
And I run for the door.  
He's already locked it  
And I start to bawl,  
He takes me and throws me  
Against the hard wall.  
I fall to the floor  
With my bones nearly broken,  
And my daddy continues  
With more bad words spoken.  
"I'm sorry!", I scream  
But it's now much too late  
His face has been twisted  
Into unimaginable hate.  
The hurt and the pain  
Again and again  
Oh please God, have mercy!  
Oh please let it end!  
And he finally stops  
And heads for the door,  
While I lay there motionless  
Sprawled on the floor.  
My name is Sarah  
And I am but three,  
Tonight my daddy,  
Murdered me.**

**child abuse, MAKE IT STOP!**

copyrighted Sakurablossoms742 (as in NOT MINE)

_Author's note: Yes, this is another awareness piece. I figure that since I don't have either the guts or the finances to go out and talk to people in person, I will do it through my writing. None of the characters mentioned here are my own, except for Sarah. I really hate using the Malfoys as scapegoats for such things, but lots of people know who they are and it makes life a lot easier if I don't have to invent whole new families solely for the purpose of abusing their children. Talk about morbid…_

Last breath  
Kyra

The small child was afraid. She knew what was coming, and she was afraid. She knew that she shouldn't be, knew that being afraid was beneath her and her family, but she couldn't help it. She was still very young and she hadn't yet learned the techniques to close herself off from emotion. She was still open and trusting in a way she would not be in a few years. It was in these years, when she was still tender and sensitive, that her parents would cause the most damage. It was in these years that the irreparable harm would be done.

She crept through the darkened house, knowing better than to ask the House Elves to light a fire. She shivered slightly at the cold wind that gusted through the open window, but she was too short to push it closed. She hunched her thin shoulders and hurried on, slipping out of the icy room and into another. She peered through blackened eyes, straining her weak vision to see through the gloom. She was still alone. That was good. When she was alone, she couldn't be hurt. Alone was nice. There was peace and security in alone, peace and security that she never had at any other time. She wished she could always be alone.

She shuddered convulsively as her young ears picked out the telltale sound of Apparition. She would not be alone much longer, and she began to brace herself for the oncoming storm. She wondered if it was her mother or her father, and she found that she did not really care. The result would be the same either way.

A male voice rang through the house as the front door banged to a close. The child winced as her father called her name, and she moved to hide, running to the darkest corner she could find and pressing her small body into it. It was no use. Her father stormed into the room, his sharp eyes picking her out immediately. Tears began streaming down her face as she saw the look on his face. She knew that tonight would be especially bad. She didn't know what had happened, didn't know which of his plans had fallen through this time, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was the pain that she would soon feel, pain that she already felt in anticipation. The fear and pain only made her tears fall faster, blocking her vision of his rapidly approaching figure completely.

Her father grabbed her, lifting her small body easily in his powerful hands. "Malfoys _don't _cry!" he shouted, shaking her until her teeth chattered together. She knew that, knew that she had to stop, but she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried, the tears continued to flow. He held her for a long moment, waiting. When she didn't stop crying, he flung her furiously at the wall. She splattered against the hard stone of the wall, crumpling brokenly back to the ground. He looked at her in disgust. "You are no daughter of mine," he told her, his voice loud and disdainful.

"I'm sorry," she shrieked, unable to help herself. She clamped her hands to her mouth, but it was too late. His face twisted into an unrecognizable mask of hatred and fury, and he crossed the distance between them with a few long strides. He scooped her up again, screaming obscenities into her face. She tried to tune them out, tried to block the words out as her brother had taught her. She couldn't. She had to listen as her father ranted and raved, blaming her for every problem in his life. Tears continued to fall down her face, drenching her clothes and dripping onto the floor. He flung her against the wall again, and she was certain that she heard the crack of a bone as she slithered back to earth. She cried out in agony, but he paid no attention. She could smell the liquor on his breath as he scooped her up a third time, and she knew that it was hopeless. It had happened before, and it would happen again. There was nothing she could do.

The knowledge didn't stop the pain, and she soon wore her voice down to nothing with her screams. The knowledge that her mother would come home and do it again only made it worse. As he hurled her towards the wall again, she spun in the air, connecting head first with the wall. Her head exploded in mind-numbing agony as she connected, and she screamed louder than ever, her head swimming and her vision bursting with stars and bright lights. Soon, the lights faded and were replaced with gray. Even the pain began to fade, and she sighed in relief. She wondered if he would stop now. Surely he had hurt her enough!

Her hearing began to fade, and she closed her eyes, trying to block out her father's screams. She didn't notice that they had turned from furious to horrified. Her vision went from gray to white and she felt as though she were drifting away on a cloud of white. She looked down, noting without surprise that she could see herself. Her body lay there, bruised and bleeding, a broken shell that was beyond repair. She knew then that she would never come back, knew that she had passed into a place where she could not be hurt. She smiled, for once without the pain of cracked lips, and allowed the cloud to carry her far, far away to a place where she would never be hurt again.

Sarah Malfoy had drawn her last breath, and now she was free.


End file.
